Big'un

Here's my watercolor example. I wanted to do this example after my Dad's dog, Big'un. I couldn't find a picture so I got a picture off the internet and "imagined" Big'un as a pup.

I did a mistake when I did the pup first instead of doing the lighter color grass and then the darker colors of the puppy, instead of using the latter to coverup my mistakes. Overall, it is a good piece, but my paint strokes on the dog are a little off. I love the dog's eye, and I'm a little worried about my shading. It seems to come from all over the place.

What do you think?

Watercolor Project

Watercolor is the perfect medium for capturing light and color in nature. The paint is mostly transparent and while the fluid nature of the watercolor makes it unpredictable, the range of effects it can create makes up for it. Watercolor, or aquarelle in French, is used in a series of washes, allowing the light to reflect on the underlying paper. This layering creates a rich and vibrant effect by allowing the colors to be mixed by the viewers eye. This transparency also makes it difficult and sometimes unforgiving to work with. If a mistake occurs, it cannot be simply painted over, although most of it can be lifted off with water. Watercolors first appeared in China and Japan. Watercolor painting is intertwined with the history of paper, invented in China around 100 AD. From then on, both spread. The first primary forms of watercolor painting for the Medieval and Renaissance artists was fresco: painting with water-based pigments on wet plaster (the Sistine Chapel is the most famous, painted from 1508-1512). Albrecht Durer (German, 1471-1528) was traditionally considered to be the first master of watercolor. [The painting of A Young Hare, done by Durer in 1502, is to the top left.] Over the next 250 years, many other artists continued to use watercolor, but mainly as a tool for drawing and developing compositions. The classic style of watercolor painting was developed in England, 18th and 19th centuries with the introduction of high-quality paper. This is when special watercolor paper was designed that would allow the artist to lift the watercolor from the paper and work with it. The watercolor movement was led by the talented watercolorist Joseph M.W. Turner (English, 1775-1851), a great painter from the 19th century. [His Conway Castle, North Wales, is to the bottom right and was finished in 1798.] Some other classic watercolorists are Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, and James A.M. Whistler. This historical information was collected and paraphrased from: http://documents.stanford.edu/67/2869. I highly encourage you to click on this, which will allow you to look at watercolor paintings from Winslow Homer, an American artist. This website is the from the National Gallery of Art. It does not just include some of his paintings, but information on him and on every single piece of artwork. I encourage you to look at some of his afterword paintings, not just the ones on that first page. There are 344-but don't worry! You do not have to look at them all.

If you want help/inspiration go to this website!!!

Me and Christen are presenting a collage. We had an idea of making something fun and creative for it :) this picture is a good example of what we are aiming for. Its very inspirational. This image came from windows 7 desktop.

Collage

Bethany and I are doing a presentation about what a collage is and how to make a collage. A collage is a form of art that uses different materials such as pictures, fabric, and different types of paper etc. which are all arranged and pasted to a backing. Some collages are more personal with photographs and some are just about fun. You have to create a theme or a certain look that you want to try to achieve when making your collage. Some artists will paint on a canvas and glue objects on to it after the painting to give it a 3D affect this is also considered a collage. These pictures are a few different collages to give you some ideas to start. We will be doing our presentation Monday January 23 so make sure you have an idea of what you would like to do for your collage. You may use any types of materials such as glitter, fabric, buttons etc.. If you have anything specific you wish to use on your collage such as personal photographs or something else please be sure to bring it with you to class on Monday January 23 (we will also be presenting our example of a collage on this date as well). Thanks Everyone! To formally give credit where credit is due the collage of the dog is called "DOG ART: Boxer Dog Pop Art Collage" by Michel Keck and you can look at more of his collages on his website ModernDogArt.com. The other collage is called "P390 - Front & Center 3D Collage w/Story" by Crystal Neubauer and you can look at more of her collages on her blog called "Crystal Neubauer art and objects."

Masashi Kishimoto

I chose Masashi Kishimoto because I am a real big fan of his work. Masashi is a Japanese manga artist and is known for creating the manga Naruto. I love all his little details that he puts into his characters because you can see just about every exspresstion in their face of in their actions, and you truly get to see the character come to life. I am a BIG fan of Naruto and even draw anime myself (not as good as Masashi but I still draw it) :).

Annual Oconee & Pickens County Student/Teacher Art Show

The Blue Ridge Arts Council and the World of Energy have partnered with the School District of Oconee and Pickens Counties once again to showcase the artwork of students and teachers.
The show will consist of three student works of art and a piece from each art teacher.

The World of Energy will host the opening reception on Thursday, January 12, from 3:00 -7:00 p.m. which is open to the public. Admission is free. The show will remain open until Febuary 11, 2012 and will be available for viewing during regular business hours. The World of Energy is located at 7812 Rochester Highway, Seneca, SC 29678. Open Monday - Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Saturday from noon until 5:00 p.m.

Ash

In art class, I presented a powerpoint presentation about a great animator named Hayao Miyazaki. He began as an animator for the Towi Douga studio, but later after the success of his movie Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind he established his own studio, Studio Ghibli. He has created many of my favorite movies such as; Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, and the latest, Ponyo.

Keith Haring

In Mrs. Glenn's art class each student has to present a certain artist to talk about. I chose keith Haring because I admired how is work often portrayed deeper meaning into his simplistic style of art.

Keith Haring devoted much of his time to public works, which often carried social messages. He produced more than 50 public artworks between 1982 and 1989, in dozens of cities around the world, many of which were created for charities, hospitals, children’s day care centers and orphanages.

Marilyn VonTengeln, multi-medium art and encaustics

My 'Artist of the Week' presentation was on Marilyn VonTungeln, an artist born in South Carolina. She was always interested in art, producing amazing pastel pieces (right) at the young age of sixteen. Later in life, however, she moved to Texas, a state whose endless rolling deserts would inspire a range of landscape pieces from her. What I always thought had set her apart, however, was her use of encaustics. The encaustic medium involves melting wax onto a small iron and smearing the resulting liquid wax onto a canvas similar to posterboard; thick and smooth. Once wet, the wax could be manipulated using a range of tools, but the result is a beautiful piece that maintains texture and dries with a reflective scene, like Marilyn's "Two's Company" (left).

Her talent was more than enough to get her into several art groups and a mall gallery, her work being influential enough that now, barely a year after her death, she is still celebrated with the presentation of the Marilyn VonTungeln Memorial Award, a $100 recognition given by the Rio Bravo Water colorists Association to members of their group. Her legacy continued through her daughter, Brenda, who briefly help a career as an appliance manual illustrator and a 3D design artist. Brenda also home-taught her daughters (me and my sister) in art, and I hope to live up to her good name. -Twin the Younger

Inking heroes to life - Jim Lee

My artist presentation was on Jim Lee, comic book illustrator extraordinaire! He stopped his education in the medical field to become a comic book artist, and boy, did it ever pay off. He has been special ordered for graphic novels with top notch writers ever since, his latest and famous being the Batman graphic novel, Hush (my absolute favorite thus far). Check him out sometime - it'll be worth it.

What I envy most is his perfect fabrication of human proportions and body. Young or old, buff or scrawny, landing a kick or taking a nap, Lee can draw them.-Twin 1